Red Bull Thre3style Sydney: 2 in a row for Typhonic

Red Bull Thre3style Sydney: 2 in a row for Typhonic

There aren’t many club nights where it’s acceptable to hear the Beastie Boys’ Intergalactic thrown down three times in 90 minutes, DJ Shadow’s Organ Donor twice, and more Skrillex then you can whip your hair back and forth too either side of that. Then again, there aren’t many club nights like Red Bull Thre3style.

The rules are simple – DJs have to play at least three genres in a 15-minute set, to get the party started! Six of Sydney’s best DJs went head-to-head at Upstairs Beresford on Saturday night. Here’s what went down.

The crowd were anxiously milling about as Chinese Laundry regular Starjumps put the PA through its paces early, but the party began as soon as the first of six contestants stepped up to the challenge – the challenge being dropping at least three different genres across a 15 minute DJ set as creatively as possible.

As host Shantan Wantan Ichiban introduced first contestant Pablo Calamari, the party instantly began. The DJ/producer was a picture of concentration as his understated stage presence slowly built along with his music – from old skool funk to hip hop and right up to Calabria’s house bomb Rune, Major Lazer’s Pon De Floor and slamming dubstep by the seven minute mark. The cuts got quicker before an epic slowdown back to hip hop up to booty bass and into Da Hool’s Meet Her At The Love Parade had many in the crowd looking for the glowstick stand.

Defending champion Typhonic launched straight into a beat juggle, then the Jackson 5’s I Want You Back, then A Tribe Called Quest’s I Left My Wallet In El Segundo, then four bars of Snow’s Informer, and the obligatory massive drop of House Of Pain’s Jump Around. The latter track seemed to be the mission statement for his set as he leapt between more genres than you could count on two hands, highlighted by a massive double drop of Intergalactic and Organ Donor, another two-in-one of Fine Young Cannibals’ She Drives Me Crazy and C+C Music Factory’s Gonna Make You Sweat, and a frenetic rinse-out to close.

Emoh Instead brought the night’s most futuristic selection of sounds – the opening beats were exploratory, the music vibes were deep, and some on the dancefloor looked a little confused even when he dropped good buddy Flume’s current radio favourite Sleepless. His stage presence was big and the bass even bassier as he moved into more conventional 4/4 beats straight from the favelas, funked up glitch hop, the Beastie’s Hey Ladies and the crowd-pleasing Super Mario Bros theme. The occasional beat slip was forgivable given the hard work he was putting in at the controls, and Intergalactic, Organ Donor, a throbbing electro booty of Blur’s Song 2 and Knife Party’s Internet Friends brought a smashing finale.

DJ JAMiN brought the proper old-skool block party style for the most conventional set of the night – there’s I Want You Back again, a scratch-tacular drop of Eye Of The Tiger, N*E*R*D*, Run-DMC and Aerosmith’s Walk This Way, California Soul and a switch into dirty glitch hop business. From there Skrillex’s Bangarang kicked it up another notch, and a closing booty bonanza of the Beastie’s Sabotage and the Pendulum remix of The Prodigy’s Voodoo People ticked three genre boxes at once.

DJ Valentine took the stage in a cloak straight out of Game Of Thrones, but that was thrown off as she kicked into hip hop, up to bass house, and then literally blew minds with a karate kick that goes above her head – all while standing upright on the other leg. I Like To Move It kept things in the ghetto as she danced between her three deck set-up with ease, kissed the crucifix necklace, and gave the ladies on the floor the set they had waitied for all night. She even made the Red Bull DJ console her own personal podium as Jump Around got its second play.
Lucky last A-Tonez opened strong with Cypress Hill’s Insane In The Brain, a bit of dubstep, and an impressive beat juggle using his trigger pad controller, all without losing the dancefloor vibes – his skills as a regular club DJ definitely shone through, the slight technical imperfections all the more admirable because the man can scratch! After he completed Intergalactic’s trilogy of plays for the evening, the Sub Focus remix of Rusko’s Hold On and trace elements of Skrillex’s Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites brought the competition to a massive close.

Judges Gaz Harrison (Yacht Club DJs), Ming Gan (Fuzzy Entertainment) and Dan Zilber (FBi Radio) had the unenviable task of anointing this year’s Sydney champ, and after Gaz finishes smashing out a genre-hopping set with his fellow Yachter Guy Hoolihan it’s announced that Typhonic took the title for the second year running.

Will he be able to knock the all-conquering Melburnian DJ Perplex off his throne this year? All will be revealed at the Red Bull Thre3style 2012 final at Sydney’s Metro Theatre on Friday 10 August!

The national Red Bull Thre3Style final hit new heights on Saturday night when over 800 people crammed into Wellingtons Mac’s Brew Bar. Party goers witnessed the country’s finest DJ’s facing off in a...